Jane Kenyon
Photographer
| Otherwise by Jane Kenyon
I got out of bed
on two strong legs. It might have been otherwise. I ate cereal, sweet milk, ripe, flawless peach. It might have been otherwise. I took the dog uphill to the birchwood. All morning I did the work I love. At noon I lay down with my mate. It might have been otherwise. We ate dinner together at a table with silver candlesticks. It might have been otherwise. I slept in a bed in a room with paintings on the walls, and planned another day just like this day. But one day, I know, it will be otherwise. ©2005 by the Estate of Jane Kenyon After reading this poem take a few minutes to breathe in the essence of Jane's writing! The "Otherwise" poem by Jane Kenyon was recommended by a Paul Hendrickson. Thanks for sharing this most amazing simple yet complex poem with us Paul. Paul Hendrickson wrote Hemingway’s Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934-1961. Congratulations to Paul and his Family. Local Havertown, Pa residents. #14 on the NYT Bestsellers List! |
 | You and I by Mary Ann Hoberman
Only one I in the whole wide world
And millions and millions of you, But every you is an I to itself And I am a you to you , too! But if I am a you and you are an I And the opposite also is true, It makes us both the same somehow Yet splits us each in two. It's more and more mysterious, The more I think it through: Every you everywhere in the world is an I, Every I in the world is a you? Thanks for sharing this poem with us Jim. I love the ending don't you! |
 Art by Nixon Yuimach | Imagine a Woman by Patricia Lynn Reilly
"Imagine a Woman" Please visit Patricia Lynn Reilly's website to hear her read her poem. http://www.imagineawoman.com/ |
 Art by Nik Helbig
| From the Heart
"The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere, they're in each other all a long." - Rumi |
 Art by Ozz Franca
| The Body
O friend, understand.
The body is like the ocean, rich with hidden treasures. Open your innermost chamber And light its lamp, Within the body are gardens, Rare flowers, peacocks; the inner music; Within the body a lake of bliss, On it, the white soul-swans take their joy. - Mirabai |
 | The Journey by Mary Oliver
One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice-- though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. "Mend my life!" each voice cried. But you didn't stop. You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations, though their melancholy was terrible. It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones. But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do-- determined to save the only life you could save. |
 | Passing Stranger by Walt Whitman
PASSING stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you, You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me as of a dream,) I have somewhere surely lived a life of joy with you, All is recall'd as we flit by each other, fluid, affectionate, chaste, matured, You grew up with me, were a boy with me or a girl with me, I ate with you and slept with you, your body has become not yours only nor left my body mine only, You give me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass, you take of my beard, breast, hands, in return, I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit alone or wake at night alone, I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again, I am to see to it that I do not lose you.
by: Walt Whitman (1819-1892) |
